ITS CONDITION AND EXTENT-DELHI AND ITS PLAINS-AMRITSAR AND LAHOREPESHAWAR AND KASHMIR-SIMLA-LANDOUR-DHARMSALA-DALHOUSIE.

WATER-CARRIERS.

THE
ing of English conquests in
India. It is nearest to England
by way of Karâchi; it has a cooler
and more bracing climate, though
the south parts about Multan are
almost rainless, and from the prox-
imity of the desert the air becomes
scorching. It has accessible hill
stations, and it has a population of
twenty-three millions, friendly and
loyal, as well as quiet and indus-
trious. When I first crossed
the Sutlej," says the lamented
John Lawrence, "there was not
the trace of a road in the country,
now we have several thousand
miles of road and railways. The
people were our enemies; one
class in the country preyed on the

HE Punjab is the most promis

66

other; there was little real security. Now all this has changed. Life and property are wonderfully safe. The people are peaceable and well-disposed.

All this has been proved beyond question in 1857, when, but for the general contentment of the people, it would not have been possible to maintain the public tranquillity, still less to have assisted in the re-conquest of Hindustan. For all these advantages I acknowledge myself indebted to the great Author of all good. Without His guiding and protecting hand, what would indeed have become of us all?" Henry and John Lawrence, and indeed most of their coadjutors and successors in the government of the Punjab, were men who openly avowed their faith in Christianity, and their desire to give it to the people they governed. They supported missionary effort, and the results are evident. Sir Herbert Edwardes, the Commissioner, openly declared at Peshawar: "The East has been given to our country for a mission, neither to the minds nor bodies, but to the souls of men. Our mission in India is to do for other nations what we have done for our own. To the Hindus we have to preach one God, and to the Mohammedans to preach one Mediator.' The Americans were the pioneers of missions throughout the district; and the foundations of a sound Bible Christianity have been deeply laid. Besides efficient schools, they have founded orphanages, asylums, and hospitals. No fewer than eight Missionary Societies, with thirty central missions, are now at work in the Punjab; and no stronger argument for Christian missions could be urged than that afforded by the state of the country.

The name Punjab signifies "the five rivers," the five great tributaries of the Indus; and the tracts of country between the rivers are called Doabs. But the Sutlej, the limit of the conquests of Alexander the Great, does not form the eastern boundary. The province of Delhi itself has since the Mutiny been included; and when one enters Delhi one enters the Punjab. Many hill states are also embraced under the name; and to these must be added ill-governed Kashmir, extending beyond the Himalayas, and unjustly handed over to the tender mercies of an alien Maharajah.

DELHI, the Rome of Asia during three thousand years, is a thousand miles from Calcutta, and fifteen hours by railway from Cawnpore. The city is on the river Jumna, just outside the boundary of the North-West Provinces, and within the Punjab. It had a long history before the Moguls. It is said to have been destroyed and rebuilt seven times; and the remains of these successive cities cover the plain for miles. The great fort, built by Shah Jehan, is a mile and a half in circuit, with a wall forty feet high. Entering by the Lahore Gate, a splendid Gothic arch in the centre of the tower is succeeded by a long vaulted aisle; and driving through, we come to the Hall of Public Audience, of red sandstone, and then by the Motee Musjid, the Mosque of Pearls, well named from its pearly loveliness, to the Hall of Private Audience, all of polished marble, and looking out over the wide Jumna. Here, between each pair of pillars, is a beautiful balustrade of marble chastely carved. The roof has at each corner a marble kiosk

with a gilt dome. The ceiling is composed of gold and silver filigree work, and in the centre stood the famous peacock throne of solid gold, with gems and diamonds estimated as worth six million pounds sterling.

It was

captured by the Persian Nadir Shah in 1739. All this wealth and grandeur have been taken away; but the building still witnesses to its former magnificence, and along the cornice on each side of the chamber the inscription

is repeated in flourishing Arabic inlaid: "If there be a paradise on earth, it is this! it is this! it is this!" Vanitas vanitatum, would be a more appropriate motto now.

The great Mosque of Delhi, built of red sandstone and white marble— the snowy domes marble, the needle-like minarets red sandstone - perched high upon a rock, and approached by forty deep steps on three of its sides, is the one object that meets the eye everywhere about Delhi, and is the finest mosque in India, and the chief shrine of Indian Mohammedanism. Like all great mosques, it is named Jumma Musjid, i.e. the Friday Mosque, Friday being the Mohammedan Sabbath. The Empress, our Queen, has forty millions of Mohammedan subjects in India. Their bearing strikes you

at once as different from that of the Hindus. They are conquered conquerors. Once the rulers, they are in turn the ruled; and as they walk haughtily along, when they pass an Englishman, they grind their teeth. Pride and hatred, the two most prominent features in a Mohammedan, are apparent on every hand. To describe this mosque will be to describe all. A huge quadrangle open to the sky, four hundred and fifty feet square, a fountain in the middle, for the ablutions of the faithful, a colonnade on three sides, north, south and east, of red sandstone with open arches. On the west, towards Mecca, a building open in front, of white marble, covered with three graceful white marble domes, surmounted by spires of copper, richly gilt. Its front--with a majestic opening in the centre and smaller arches on either side is all of white marble with Arabic inscriptions. The interior